Mr Abbott flew pre-dawn from Melbourne to Hobart to visit the chocolate factory, which is both in the process of expanding and, handily, in Independent Andrew Wilkie's marginal electorate of Denison outside Hobart, desired by both Liberal and Labor.

With conveyor belts loaded with Freddo frogs and numerous other forms of confectionary whizzing around, Mr Abbott promised $16 million to assist Cadbury's expansion plans, which will require another 6000 cows to supply all those famous one and half glasses of full-cream milk, up from 83 million litres to 120 million litres.

The $16 million would help build a new visitor tour to the factory in Claremont, and provide a trial to grow cocoa in the Ord River region in Australia's north. It was all about jobs, tourism and innovation, Mr Abbott said, the scent of cocoa in the air.

The Opposition Leader even helped stir a vat of chocolate and sprinkled multi-coloured hundreds and thousands in to lift its delight factor.

Cadbury - a multinational company these days - is planning to increase its capacity from 50 tonnes a year to 70 tonnes, much of it for export. The $66 million program would increase jobs by 300 and secure an existing 1000 jobs, making the factory a stand-out in Tasmania, where unemployment is high and wages are low.

All that chocolate also supports much of Tasmania's agricultural production. Dairy farming constitutes 40 per cent of the state's agricultural base, and the extra 6000 cows required to produce the extra milk for Cadbury's confections will boost it further.

The super-fit Mr Abbott said he had no self-discipline where chocolate was involved, and with a week and a half of electioneering ahead of him, refrained from dipping his hand into the sweets jar.